Hyunwoo Sun of Talk To Me In Korean discusses how he learned English in the video below. It was fascinating! He talked about being completely tongue-tied the first time he met an English speaker, even though he had years of English in school.

Focus on Speaking

Hyunwoo’s efforts of seeking out this English speaker and trying and making mistakes over and over really felt like how I am right now. His focus was on “output” being able to speak and prove he did know English. My 3 month goal of making small talk is the same idea. I want to take the words I know and string them together into a set of sentences I can say.

Proving myself

Why do I feel like I have to “prove” that I know some Korean?

I feel like I need to repay the kindness of the Koreans I have met by speaking Korean with them. When I contacted the Williams College professor, I wanted to tell her what I knew so we would have a starting point for tutoring. I spent a week trying to figure out what I had learned in my 6 months of studying.

I struggle to make sentences. I am hopeless at writing emails and making small talk. Progress feels slow. I practice my Hangul typing and handwriting. I do Glossika Mass Sentences. I listen to audio. I do flashcards. I almost never speak. I can’t respond in real time, my memory is slow to recall.